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August 8, 2015

Recyclable plastic bags don’t always get reused right away, so they
accumulate in the dark recesses of your kitchen cabinets. And when it’s time to
reuse, you “ukay-ukay” (dig) into them frantically looking for the right size
bag for your purpose. It’s like stashing your underwear in your drawer without
folding and then rummaging through everything looking for that particular piece
you want to wear. No offense to folks who choose this kind of excitement but,
to me, it’s an inconvenience (yes, I fold underwear).

This was my stash of recyclable plastic bags before I found a way to
organize them:

I figured that all I needed was some simple manner to quickly identify
the bags, keep the same sizes together, and make them quickly accessible for
reuse. So, let’s see what we have around the house. Aha! A stash of empty
tissue paper boxes. (Hah, I bet you were sure I had those piled somewhere.)

Now to put up a grid to identify the bags. I’ll need a piece of paper as
large as the largest recyclable bag I have in the stash (could’ve recycled a
brown paper bag but I had just cut up the biggest one in my pile into a costume
pattern). I sorted the bags according to size (I was surprised there were only
five universal sizes) and drew the measurements onto the paper to serve as a
handy guide. Then I taped the paper to the inner side of the cabinet door.

I labeled five tissue boxes accordingly, and slipped the bags into
their respective storage containers. And there they are!

Now it’s a snap to put away the bags and pull out the right-sized bag
for the purpose. No more unsightly stashing, fumbling, and rummaging. Recyclable
bags organized. Just like my underwear.